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Description

Doyle's youthful, delicately handsome face belies his 30 years of age, however his deep blue eyes have lost their shine - the single sign of his hardships visible in his face. His long black hair is unkempt, and reaches his shouklers. He is slightly shorter than average, and lean, despite being reasonably muscular. His attire comprises of an old, beige duster, white shirt, freshly polished black boots, and black trousers, with a belt carrting holstered weapons, and a brown messenger bag slung over his right shoulder.

Personality

Doyle is surprisingly personable, given his past crimes, and is prone to lame wisecracks and other misplaced attempts at humour which are usually seen as two things: endearing or alienating. However, despite being ability to seem likable in an ordinary conversation, he has trust issues which make it difficult for him to have deeply personal discussions with people, often refusing to disclose common information such as home town or age. Also, when Doyle is serious he can be hard headed, and difficult to negotiate with - his lack of work as a detective can in part be attributed to this uncompromising attitude. This attribute is likely an effect of his previous occupation, a world class assassin for hire. Another result of his bloody past is actually the assassin he used to be: Doyle's disowned identity, the Crimson Mask. When wearing his infamous mask, he would allow his insecurities and worries fade away, allowing him to focus on the job, whilst being able to take off his ask and allow his conscious to clear, helping to keep grim occupation and social life seperate. However, the results of mind altering drugs have caused internal friction, as the Mask's mentality is now so extreme and sadistic, taking off the mask, even for the year Doyle has been without wearing it, has failed to fully supress his alter-ego. Although normally dormant, in situation of extreme emotion or stress echoes of Doyle's reliance on the Mask seep through, causing a remarkable and dangerous shift in personality, to one which enjoying inflicting pain and acts without conscience.

Equipment

Doyle has a six-shooter and machete holstered at his belt at all tines, having learned the value of caution in his previous occupation. His messenger bag carries several ameneties which hold value in a survival situation, such as rations, as well as the most recent newspaper he could grab, any possible files for a detective case he may be working on and his old crimson mask, with black vertical lines running paraleel to both eyes, a reminder of a dark history he hopes to escape.

History

Doyle was born an only child in a rural area thiety years ago, as Doyle Pallister, to an unremarkable couple. Within a few years, his family moved to an inner city, where he would begin his descent into darkness. Though at first a bright pupil in his education, by the age of ten, his father's debts had become such that Doyle had to beg and steal to aid his parents inadequacies despite his tender age. At the age of twelve further education was unlikely due to the increasing burden of his family's way of living, leading to the strong minded child teaching himself literacy by reading newspapers, pinched from stands, in his spare time. By fourteen, his mother had died through illness, and Doyle made his first kill of many. His father drunk almost religously after his wife's death, leading to several agressive confrontations with his son, usually ending in a beating of the latter. Before soon, Doyle began to disdain his father for the miserable life he had forced him into, and one spiteful evening, on another of father's drunken returns, the ensuing argument was brief, and ended in a knife being plunged through ribs and piercing a callous heart. Doyle found relief in his father's death, not sorrow, finding freedom in the crime he had comitted. Using a combination of grit and street wit, Doyle went on the run, evading his crime, and before long found a job as an assistant to a detective for hire, who offered him three square meals and a residence in the form of the detective office's spare room in return for hard graft. A year of running messages back and forth, typing up dossiers and making tea gained his employer's respect, who rewarded him with field tasks at his side. It was on one of these said jobs that, he found himself confronted with two, similarly young criminals on the run, who could see the potential in Doyle, and told him that he was one of them, a born killer. He began meeting with these youthful assassins, and before long, the three began taking jobs together, selling their murderous services to the highest bidder. For once, Doyle had all he could ever dream of, a small fortune from his risky work and a group of people he could rely on. He became more professional, deriving a self-satisfaction from his ability to slip in and out of compounds all over the city, leaving with blood-stained hands. However, his passion for assassination was stifled by his increasing workload in the detective agency and before long, it was clear that Doyle would have to run away again, if he truly wanted to become a great killer. Unfortunately for Doyle, his employer, who already saw his apprentice as a member of his family found a blood-stained mask under his bed, planted by Doyle's new "friends". When interrogated that evening, the young killer-for-hire let told the closest thing he had to a father of his atrocities, and the just detctive broke into tears, a result of feeling that his trust had been betrayed so utterly. Afterwards, Doyle once more crept into the night, a wanted man once more, keeping his new mask as a memento of the life he had left behind. Now under the guise of the Crimson Mask, Doyle's reputation grew to be feared, a sign that death could come at any time, depending on the price. However, as time went on, Doyle's colleagues became tired of clean, simple kills, instead choosing to put their victims through as much pain as posssible, even daring each other to see who could make their target scream the most and still escape. The ever professional DOyle, didn't agree with their sadism, and was even consiering leaving, before his allies noticed a differnce in styles and decided to remedy it. Unbeknownnst to DOyle, his friends began slipping mind altering drugs into his diet, making his alias under the mask even more dangerous, killing with reckless abandon, and taking grim satisfaction in the suffering of his targets. It was getting to the point where, upon taking off his mask, Doyle could not remember his actions and this new worringly aggressive alias led to him leaving his assassination days behind, after he woke up one morning in a hotel lobby, mask strewn across the room, as were the hanging bodies of every occupant unfortunate to have chosen the residence for the night. Finally realising the crimes he had committed, and the monster it had made in his image, Doyle went into hiding for a couple of years, using the fortune he has amassed through murder to live comfortably. However, nightmares of his crimes still haunt him, and hoping vindication will arrive, he adopts a more personal attitude to the world, and becomes a private investigator, in honour of the just detective who once put trust in him. However... buisness is slow, and Doyle has been wandering without much respite, but he coninues, continues, hoping to one day finally outrun his past.

Doyle Gallows's Story